EARLY SHEARING RESULTS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25246, 26 July 1947, Page 5

EARLY SHEARING RESULTS

Excellent Wool Returns

MORE LAMBS FAT OFF MOTHERS

Many Canterbury farmers last season shore a portion of their ewe flock before lambing, but the Happy Valley property of Mr D. S. McKenzie, Motunau, with 3600 ewes, was the largest to shear the whole flock. Considerable interest was taken in this move, and not a few predictions were made that it would be an expensive experiment. In the 13 years that the present owner has had Happy Valley the property has been farmed along exceptionally progressive lines. It is of about 5500 acres and lies on the coast a few miles north of the Motunau river. It includes about 2000 acres of flats which slope up from the low bluff along the coast, the flats giving place to low hills and, further back, to higher, more broken country. When it was taken up practically 'the whole of the flats were in danthonia and had been given very little cultivation. The flats were becoming badly infested with gorse, and there was a little scrub. The hilly portion of the property was also in native grasses and was badly infected with gorse and scrub. The improvement programme consisted mainly in getting the flats into order, and the whole 2000 acres have now been ploughed. About half of this area is down in certified pastures. In addition, a great deal of work has been done on the easier hills, where a swamp plough has been used to turn in the gorse and smaller scrub preparatory to grassing it. It is one of the tragedies of the war that much of the work of reclaiming the hill land had tc be stopped in mid flight because of lack of men and materials. A lot of the ground, left with only an initial ploughing, or with a first crop of turnips, has reverted to gorse and is indeed in worse condition than it was before any work was undertaken. Not only has the initial work been lost, but much more has been added.

Importance of Lime Characteristic of the energetic and enterprising policy of the present owner was the establishment early on of a lime crushing plant on the property. The initial expense was not light, but in view of prices these days the plant was a bargain It has so far enabled 3000 tons of high-grade lime to be spread at a total *wages and operating cost of about £l3OO. This has been the backbone of the development policy, and its benefits are everywhere apparent in tight and thriving pastures, heavy crops, and particularly in the strikingly thrifty condition of the stock The liming programme also got badly behind during the war. The property is far from easy to manage. The higher country is a continuous problem, to which recently has been added the threat of nassella, which has led to the abandonment of burning. Part of the flat land lies rather away from the sun, and the .soil, a good loam over clay of rather a tight, puggy type, makes drainage a problem with the average rainfall of 32J inches. In recent years, of course, the average rainfall has been heavily exceeded. The year before last, for instance, there were 49 inches of rain. To give something concrete on the performance of ewes shorn early as compared with ewes shorn at the normal time, 300 of the Happy Valley four and six-tooth Romney-Corriedale cross were kept out of the main mobs and run together. This mob, which has been run together continuously since last winter, was divided in two, and 150 shorn on August 14 and the other 150 on November 14. All the ewes were put to Southdown rams, and records of their wool and lamb

production kept. | As the comparison of the two mobs I? 1 Wo °l production was a comparison between wool grown over 12 months, and wool grown over only nine months, it is not strictly valid. It is nevertheless interesting. The early shorn ewes clipped 8.91 b a head of fleece wool (bellies and pieces removed). The late shorn ewes clipped 10.61 b a head, again without bellies and pieces. The difference was 1.71 b, or 16 per cent., in favour of the late shorn ewes, which had a 25 per cent, advantage in length of growing time. That the early shorn ewes produced only 16 per cent, less wool in a 25 per cent, shorter growing time is not necessarily significant, as wool does not grow at a regular pace through-

out the year. Expert and detailed examination of the two sets of fleeces showed that of the late shorn, 100 were unsound in some degree, and of these 34 showed some cotting. mostly sligrt. Of the early shorn fleeces, only six showed unsoundness, and there was no cotting. It should be emphasised that the unsoundness was judged by the most exacting standards, and that none of the wool was seriously faulty. Both lots of fleeces showed some tenderness and sometimes a break about the lambing period, but here the early shorn wool had an advantage in that the break came right at the tip of the fleece while the late shorn break was well down the staple. The early shorn wool was very clean, bright, and light in i condition. Wool Prices

The difference in the price was substantial, and averaged 2~d per 'lb in favour of the early shorn wool. Thus, the average return from fleece wool from the early shorn ewes was 18s approximately, and the return from the late shorn ewes with their heavier fleeces was 19s 9d approximately, an advantage to the late shorn ewes of about Is 5d a head.

Lambing tallies in both mobs were good, and averaged 124 per cent, marked in each mob. Of the 186 lambs in each mob, 135 from the early shorn ewes went to the works off the mothers in the first draft, and 20 in the second draft. In the late shorn mob. 93 lambs were drafted off the mothers in the first draft, but in the second draft, 34 went away fat. Thus 155 went fat off the mothers from the early shorn draft, and 127 from the late shorn mob, a difference of 28 in favour of the early shorn ewes.

The first drafts killed out at 38.71 b from each mob. The lambs were incidentally described by the works grader as the best he had seen so far that season. The weights certainly support that opinion. The second draft off the early shorn ewes went 31.51 b, nearly jib lighter than the second draft from the ’ late shorn ewes which hung up at 32.141 b. There were no rejects and no seconds in either of the first or second drafts.

The two mobs are still being run as one, and comparisons of meat and wool production will again be made this season. Whether or not the results again favour the early shorn ewes, in one respect they have proved decidedly better. They were very much less troublesome to lamb. Both mobs were in high condition, and the woollies were carrying a big fleece. The usual number of woollies were found cast about lambing time, but only an odd ewe needed assistance among the shorn ones. The whole Happy Valley flock of 3600 ewes was in fact lambed down by two men. both of whom say they nevertheless had time on their hands during the lambing. Early lambing is so far regarded at Happy Valley as an unqualified success. The full trial of the two mobs should give figures which will show the commercial advantage or otherwise of the practice under Canterbury conditions.